Virender Sehwag was at his aggressive best in Chennai as he went on to score the fastest ever triple-hundred in Tests © Getty Images

Virender Sehwag’s strength stems from his feeling of self-belief. He obviously has unwavering faith in himself and his brand of cricket. All the while he was going through a drought of runs, several critics called him irresponsible in getting out to extravagant shots. But Sehwag never deviated from his extravagant style and reliance on aggressive stroke play every time he took the crease, irrespective of the situation the team was facing.

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The Chepauk performance should help rebuild Sehwag’s self-confidence and restore his belief in his own talents. Of all the outstanding batsmen who have performed at the international level with such elan in recent years, he displays the most uncanny coordination between limbs and eyes.

Elsewhere, Graham Gooch talks to the Telegraph about Sehwag's innings, and his own triple-hundred, the 333 against India at Lord's in 1990.

The Independent's Stephen Brenkley expresses his concern over the future of Tests, and holds the financial clout of the Indian board, expressed via the IPL, responsible for the situation.

Money has done a lot of talking. Couldn't be better? Don't believe it. The game is hurtling towards a crossroads and not only might it struggle to know which way to turn, it might also have little choice in the matter. One country, India, is setting the pace and plotting the direction.

Other countries are wondering how to respond. They recognise the new league as a hitherto unseen cash cow but in some cases are casting envious eyes. There are reactions and knees jerking everywhere. New Zealand bowed to the inevitable last week by allowing five of their players to arrive late for the tour of England so that they could earn some of the Indian money. In England, there is mild panic, with talk of the big counties trying to form their own breakaway league.

Test cricket, the blue riband version of the game, is under impending threat. In six of the 10 countries where it is played, it is virtually unwatched most of the time by live audiences, while in a seventh, Zimbabwe, it has not been played for almost three years and may never be again.

Vibrant though the game might be in three countries – England, Australia and India – there are profound concerns that most of the power, influence and, crucially, money will all belong to India. The International Cricket Council are probably worried, but what their officials possess in gumption they lack in influence, especially where India are concerned.

	England stars are trapped between obligations to country and untold riches, feel many © Getty Images

For the ECB, the emergence of the IPL presents a challenge on two fronts, says Richard Hobson in The Sunday Times. Early evidence suggests a struggle on both, with an unsustainable stance of blocking centrally contracted players who wish to cash in and the most timid of recommendations to the domestic structure.

English caution in Twenty20 has been costly as with IPL the bird has flown to the East and begun to deliver bigger nuggets, says Hobson, who feels that India, galvanised by a “rebel” league, has seized 20-over cricket. When an Indian administrator sneezes, the ECB catches the cold.

In the Sunday Telegraph, Simon Briggs spoke to IS Bindra, one of the IPL co-founders, who defended the competition.

The men running the IPL might be expected to resent these attempts to muscle in on their territory. Bindra, in fact, says he welcomes the expansion of the IPL concept. "We want to work together with other boards to make the official structure of domestic and international cricket as strong as possible," he said. "The ECB is a good example, because the rebels are already looking to expand into grounds in England.

In the same newspaper Richard Sydenham caught up with Dean Headley, ambassador for the Professional Cricketers' Association. Headley warns that the ECB may face "catastrophic" player losses if they do not soften their stance on the participation of England players in the lucrative IPL.

	Shane Warne in action for his beloved Hampshire © Getty Images

Shane Warne, who retired from first-class cricket last week, bids farewell to Hampshire in his latest column for The Times:

After eight years, four of them as captain, I cannot just draw a line under what has been one of the happiest parts of my life. In cricket it is not only the games you play that are important, or even the victories you achieve, but the people you meet along the way. Some of my team-mates will remain friends for life.

Dimi Mascarenhas is one example. He spent a fortnight here in Melbourne recently and I am looking forward to playing alongside him again - and watching his big-hitting - when he comes over to Jaipur. I have also become close to Shaun Udal and John Crawley, guys I knew only as opponents before 2000.

Without getting a lot of silverware, we have become pretty successful on the field. I wanted to help to create a strong environment and to instil the character in the side that would give the young players the best chance of going on to play for England, and then be successful when they take that step upwards.

	Test cricket: The real gauge of a cricketer's skill © Getty Images

In my opinion, Test cricket may be compared to the finest Scotch, 50-overs a side to Indian-made foreign liquor, and Twenty20 to the local hooch. The addict who cannot have the first or the second will make do with the last.

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But proper cricket can only be Test cricket. Spread out over five days, the game unfolds as in an epic drama. No restrictions are placed on anyone. The bowler can bowl 40 overs at a stretch; the batsman plays on until he gets out. Even the fielder has greater opportunities to display his wares. He can (as in limited-overs cricket) dive to his left at cover point to stop a boundary; and he can also (unlike in limited-overs cricket) dive to his right to take a low catch at short leg. In this long, leisurely, civilized form of the game, a villain is allowed to redeem himself, a hero to reveal his flaws, a team to show reserves of character one could have scarcely thought it possessed. As with the finest Scotch, one savours every sip; and yet, as with the finest Scotch, the whole is infinitely greater than the parts

	Virender Sehwag on his way to an unbeaten 309 © Getty Images

It’s a great opportunity to get Test cricket’s highest score, and he knows he can’t really get a better opportunity to do it. We have some special records, but it would be absolutely great to see an Indian on top of that list as well.

I’m glad Sehwag’s back to doing what he does so well. He’s definitely a match-winner for me.

I’m really happy after backing him for the Australia series. I’m also really happy for him, the way he’s come back to the Test squad after a year. He showed a lot of character in Adelaide, even if he was a bit subdued.

By the way, he wanted a bat from me if he scored a double. I don’t know why. So, at the end of the third day, I told him, you get your 400, I’ll give you two. I gladly will.

	Deal or no deal: Is Shane Warne bluffing? © Getty Images

Shane Warne has put his cards on the table and will play professional poker instead of county cricket. Joe Hachem, a world champion at the tables, says in the Daily Telegraph Warne is pretty good at his new pursuit and his face is hard to read.

"Shane has that competitive nature and that's what makes him a champion," Hachem said. "He brings that competitiveness to the poker table. I said to him in the early days that he had what it takes to be a professional.

"He's also got the poker face now. When he first started out I told him he was giving off too much facial expression. But now he is very hard to read."

	Andre Nel dishes it out to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but could the day come when he won't be able to do that? © AFP

And so nobody is happy with the zero tolerance approach to sledging. Well, I am happy to say I am. Some cricketers are saying it will take something away from the game. Of course it will. It will take away a tumour and last I knew taking away a tumour left a person in better health. A glare on a field, a passing comment, a sarcastic remark, yes, that is part of the game because frustration and disappointment are part of the game. But abuse isn’t, and sadly, the people who speak in favour of sledging belittle abuse. It is all very well to say that racial and personal comments should not be allowed. It is a naïve statement because, as we saw in Australia, we can spend hours debating what is racist and what is offensive to a certain culture.

By complaining about a solution and not contributing to an alternate one, we take the easy way out. And if no solution is acceptable, I’m afraid you have to take what you get. And the only alternative, one that cricketers have brought onto themselves, is that there will be no sledging at all. A lot of mighty fine players scored a lot of runs, took a lot of wickets and stood close in without needing to abuse anyone. And if they could do it, everyone else should. Don’t forget too that we are breeding a generation that thinks calling people offensive and rude names is part of cricket. Aren’t we meant to be caretakers of the game? Handing it over to the next generation in a better state than the one we received it in? Well, all those who talk of the spirit of the game need to ask themselves this.

Simon Katich’s incredible season, which includes a record 1506 Pura Cup runs at 94.12, continues as he pushes to match some of Don Bradman’s records in the Sydney grade competition. Jamie Pandaram, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, looks at Katich’s numbers.

Katich has now tallied 569 runs at an average of 113.80 in grade cricket. If he scores 31 in this weekend's semi-final against Gordon, he will maintain an average of 100. Don Bradman was the last player to post better averages in state and grade cricket in the same season, scoring 1051 runs at 116.77 for NSW, and 549 runs at 109.80 for St George, in 1929-30.

Writing in his blog at Espnstar.com, R Mohan explores the attitude of Indian skippers to home Tests.

Pitch preparation was badly hit by all the rain around. Even so, I got the distinct impression that curator Kannan Parthasarathy was acting under instructions from either Team India or BCCI who were merely passing on the desire of the team.

'Pacha' kept the pitch very dry, which means he simply did not prepare the pitch as he normally would have. He may have been seized by the fear that if he prepared the wicket with regular watering it would be the typically hard Chepauk pitch at the start of play.

There is more than a suggestion in all this that Team India would have been happy to avoid a showdown with Dale Steyn, the South African quick who is making waves with his swing to the extent of becoming the man of the series in three successive series for South Africa. Any moisture in the pitch would have aided lateral movement of the new ball and India simply wished to avoid this.

	Ryan Sidebottom was the difference between the two sides © Getty Images

While applauding the memorable come-from-behind series victory in New Zealand, the English papers point out several weaknesses in the team that should not be overlooked.

Mike Selvey writes in the Guardian:

This has been an indifferent winter, poor team performances outweighing some fine individual ones. Much thought will be needed before England and New Zealand resume round two in early May. Primarily the top-order batting remains in turmoil … Alastair Cook needs considerable work outside off-stump, Michael Vaughan had a dreadful time … Strauss struggled until the last innings of the series, when his determination wrenched an innings, while Bell's capacity to squander talent will no doubt still infuriate

Angus Fraser, of the Independent, also has his reservations over the side’s performance:

With the exception of Sidebottom, who was outstanding throughout the series, and Stuart Broad and Tim Ambrose, who both showed promise, this was a workmanlike performance from a team who should be performing to a far higher level.

The Telegraph's Michael Henderson is all praise for Michael Vaughan's captaincy but calls the win "a short step in the right direction".

Meanwhile, in the Times Christopher Martin-Jenkins thinks Vaughan’s performances will be crucial if England are to build on the success.

A dramatic change of the order will have to be considered for next winter if Vaughan does not regain his authority, namely for him to drop down to No 6, as many a captain has effectively done in the autumn of his career, among them Garry Sobers, Clive Lloyd and Allan Border. That would enable Ian Bell to have another shot at imposing his class at first wicket down.

It's headache time for New Zealand's selectors as they look for batsmen who will prosper in England next month, David Leggat writes in the New Zealand Herald. After losing 2-1 to England on Wednesday, New Zealand have some quick decisions to make before the return bout.

Top of the priorities will be sorting out a collection of batsmen who can not only survive but succeed in demanding early-season conditions in England. Stephen Fleming won't be there to nursemaid players along. Mathew Sinclair is unlikely to make it after having five tests to cement his place and failing to take it.

Chris Barclay, writing for NZPA, believes Ross Taylor offers a glimmer of hope for the post-Fleming era.

Tim Southee, who smashed 77 not out off 40 balls to end the third Test, is the subject of the Herald’s cartoonist Rod Emmerson.

Greg Baum, writing in the Age, says the ICC might as well legislate to get rid of bad breath and smelly armpits if it wants to cut sledging from the game.

Its proposal is a bureaucrat's solution to cultural problem. Make a rule, press a button, tick a box, all fixed. But what is fixed? No one has properly established even what constitutes sledging.

Ian Chappell bristles to be called the father of sledging; he maintains his Australian teams were noisy, but never personal. Australia has never been anything less than noisy since. No one wants a foul-mouthed cacophony out there. But nor does anyone expect churchy silence.

Simon Katich tells the Daily Telegraph he would have no problems playing under Ricky Ponting if he was picked in the squad for the West Indies tour and has dismissed a report of a rift with the captain.

	Why is he retiring? © Getty Images

A fine farewell didn't mask the fact that Stephen Fleming still has plenty to offer New Zealand, despite retiring from international cricket,says Vic Marks in his blog on the Guardian website.

Why is he retiring? There have been some explanations: he would have preferred to remain as captain of the Test team; the move to Daniel Vettori may have hastened his departure. He has burgeoning business ambitions, a two-year-old daughter, a baby on the way, and a contract with the IPL. Yet he goes leaving us puzzled. He is not past his peak and in this era no Englishman, Aussie or Indian retires before their powers are manifestly in decline.

...

Fleming, Shane Bond, Scott Styris, Lou Vincent have already opted for Twenty20 riches, whether in the approved IPL or the "rogue" ICL, all of whom might have been touring England in May but have chosen not to. There is also the complication of Daniel Vettori, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills and Ross Taylor going to play in India before the tour of England. An ugly compromise will be hatched between New Zealand's board and their leading cricketers over when they arrive in the UK.

It was exactly ten years ago that Harbhajan Singh made his Test debut against Australia in Bangalore. Harish Kotian spoke to Harbhajan in an interview on Rediff.com.

At the start I was afraid to share a room with a player like [Navjot] Sidhu, whom I always admired. I was thinking of what I would talk him [about], how I would talk to him and all that. When I reached the room and met him, he congratulated me on making it to the international stage. He told me not to be under any pressure and just play as if it were another Ranji Trophy match. 'Just continue bowling the same way; there is no difference in the way one bowls in international matches. Just try and do the best you can, but don't get overawed by the atmosphere in the ground. Once the match starts, you won't realise how the five days of the Test match go,' he said.

"The ICC said that all the countries have to do is not issue a "no objections certificate" to any player they do not want to lose and based on its [the IPL] promise, the IPL will not employ them. While that sounds good, however, that is wishful thinking and it is wishful thinking especially as far as the West Indies are concerned," says Tony Becca in the Jamaica Gleaner.

The West Indies territories are poor, the West Indies board is broke (or almost broke) the people of the West Indies have always backed the players and with the players earning so much money from the ICL and the IPL, the West Indies Cricket Board will never ever attempt to prevent them from earning that amount of money by issuing a 'no objections certificate'. That means, therefore, that as far as the West Indies are concerned, it is up to the players to make a decision. And with, for example, US$800,000 coming from the IPL and US$30,000 coming from the West Indies, the choice seems obvious.

"Much has been made of us not playing a warm-up match before the series. To be honest, I don’t understand the fuss," writes Jacques Kallis in the Hindu on the eve of the first Test against India.

A couple of days ago I admitted that the selection problems and off-field controversies that have hung around South African cricket for the last month or so had adversely affected the team. I was asked the question and I didn’t see any point in not telling the truth it has been unsettling and emotions have run high at times. But let me be equally honest now: we are fully focussed and by the time we walk on to the field on Wednesday morning, the last thing on our minds will be selectors or administrators.

	Iqbal Abdulla © Getty Images

The Madrasas of the Muslim-dominated Mau-Azamgarh belt in eastern Uttar Pradesh have traditionally frowned upon cricket, but the recent success of one of their alumni [India under-19 spinner Iqbal Abdulla] has given the sport some legitimacy in the religious schools," Sunita Aron writes in the Hindustan Times.

This rural belt may not have produced any remarkable sportsmen, but its barren fields are dotted with scrawny children wielding the willow and tossing tennis balls. A little known fact is that Mukhtar Ansari, an imprisoned mafia don from Mau, is such a cricket buff that he has converted part of the compound of the Jaunpur jail — where he is lodged — into a makeshift cricket ground, and has taught many inmates how to bat and bowl. But despite the ‘Iqbal effect’ on youngsters in the religious schools, Madni was keen on explaining why his school did not encourage cricket. “We do encourage sports that help boys build their bodies,” he said.

"It’s been quite amazing how India have shaped up under [Anil] Kumble, a man many believed would be a stopgap measure till [Mahendra Singh ]Dhoni was handed over the reins of the Test captaincy too, more sooner than later, writes Kadambari Murali in the Hindustan Times.

He [Kumble] just smiles when asked how it feels to suddenly be dubbed the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket in the eventide of an illustrious career. The irony wasn’t lost on him. “I’ve always done things the way I thought they should’ve been done, accepted whatever’s come my way. I never went after the captaincy but when it did come, it was an honour. I’ve always believed that life should be taken as it comes, you need to plan and do the things you can as best as possible, not worry about things you cannot control.”

"A lot was expected when the present set up of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) took over eight months ago with a promise of a better future for the country's number one sport," writes Bishwajit Roy in the Daily Star. Unfortunately, nothing has transpired till today in translating that dream into reality.

Australia have been searching for a new spinner and in the Sydney Morning Herald, Alex Brown suggests Beau Casson, the left-arm wrist-spinner, should be picked for the tour of the West Indies.

Bryce McGain would not seem to fit the job description as set out by Andrew Hilditch's panel. A solid performer for Victoria this summer with 38 first-class wickets, McGain will nonetheless be 36 by the time Australia arrive in the Caribbean. At best, he represents a band-aid solution to Australia's spinning problem.

Casson, on the other hand, has shown rapid improvement this year. After failing to make an impression in his first season-and-a-half with NSW, the 25-year-old was among the Blues' best bowlers in the past two months, claiming 21 wickets at 26.43 in his past four matches.

In The Daily Telegraph Derek Pringle casts a sympathetic eye over Marcus Trescothick’s decision to retire from international cricket.

It will seem unthinkable to most sport lovers how playing cricket for your country can cripple a man so, especially one of the finest batsmen of his generation. But modern cricket entails a life lived on the road, one less acceptable now that families are no longer content to subjugate themselves to the employment needs of the paterfamilias.

Now, he will see out his cricketing dotage playing for Somerset, a modest stage for his exceptional talent but indisputably the right one for a healthier state of mind.

	It is his elegance and grace with the bat that should, hopefully, be long remembered with extreme fondness © Getty Images

Stephen Fleming could leave the ball with more style than most batsmen muster with a strike, says Chris Rattue in the New Zealand Herald. He's particularly unimpressed by the buzz surrounding Fleming's quest to average over 40 in Test cricket.

It's been obvious for years that Fleming's career would fall short of expectations if it needed to be judged by numbers, that his above-average talent would not be reflected in the averages column.

The last batsman to go out with so much emphasis on his average was Don Bradman, and that WAS important. In contrast, 40 is virtually a non-event as a benchmark in world cricket, even if Fleming's departure has seen it drummed up as mildly significant here.

Fleming's game was about far more than numbers or even captaincy, over which he is lauded by some and politely clapped by others.

It is his elegance and grace with the bat that should, hopefully, be long remembered with extreme fondness. It might be a long time before we produce another player to relish watching on this score.

	Not many were watching as West Indies played their first Test at home this year © AFP

Media promotion of the Test series between West Indies and Sri Lanka has been visibly lacking, reports Haydn Gill in the Nation.

However, series sponsors Digicel say a very "strategic marketing campaign" has been implemented. Quoting Digicel's head of sponsorship:

"We don't want to saturate the market too early – because there are so many games in more markets than before and because we were going across nine markets rather than six in previous years.

"The tour is quite lengthy . . . until July. When we go, we go with a big bang. The campaign has started. It has been going for weeks now."

In the Independent Online, Iqbal Khan interviews Gary Kirsten, the former South African opener, and discusses his new role as India's coach.

India's new cricket coach is chauffeur-driven each day to where he wants to go and is quickly getting used to simple things like when the department stores open and being mobbed by people who want his autograph.

Kirsten says he will manage fine during the upcoming series against South Africa.

"I'll feel a bit weird being in the opposite camp when we face South Africa in my first hurdle as coach. But I suppose I'll get over it. I won't let emotions get in my way."

	Allen Stanford pictured with a spectator © Stanford 20/20

Tucked away from the tumult and discord in Dubai was the Stanford 20/20 in the West Indies. It was, by all accounts, a thrilling, packed tournament - a template the ICC could profitably borrow. Prices were reasonable, interest compacted and intense. Of course the founder, Allen Stanford, wanted to make money. 'He might have broken even, this time, maybe not,' said a source, 'but it's long-term, America, huge market there.'

It's what those Madison Avenue guys call 'the vision thing'. The Indians have it. Stanford has it. I'm not so sure the ICC have even heard of it.

But he is also worried about the effect that the opposing Twenty20 leagues would have on the game.

Intoxicated by the prospect of quite extraordinary wealth, the people running cricket in India are convenient villains. And there can be no doubt they are driven almost solely by self-interest. But India has a right to be the epicentre of the game. The frenzied love of the people ensures it.

The concern is that the speculators reshaping the game, while sounding calm and conciliatory now, might not be so accommodating of the views of the rest of cricket once their power is near absolute. It is then that anarchy will be unleashed.

Mike Atherton, writing in the Telegraph, looks back the career of Marcus Trescothick.

At his first Test at Old Trafford in 2001, we hurried down the pavilion steps together for the first time as England openers. I had asked him if he wanted to face first ball or not, as I usually did with my new opening partners. He shrugged his shoulders and said he wasn't bothered, as if he had not a care in the world. Things must have seemed so simple for him then.Seven years and a thousand hotel rooms, plane journeys and practice sessions later the world is a more complicated place.

Stephen Brenkley shares his memories of Trescothick in the Independent.

The stress-related illness that was diagnosed has relented but never disappeared. A few days ago, he reached the airport in order to travel on Somerset's pre-season tour to Dubai. The old sensations invaded his thoughts again. He went home.

"Out of position and out of form, Andrew Strauss cuts a forlorn figure at the moment. Batting is a lonely business at the best of times". Read the article by Mike Atherton in the Telegraph. Strauss was unbeaten on 42 at the end of the day 2 in the Napier Test.

Having brought Strauss back, with what to some was unseemly haste, it is unlikely that, if the axe does fall, the selectors will act with the same swift kindness again. A spell in the wilderness awaits. All this adds up to a lot of pressure second time around in Napier. Strauss may not be playing for his career, but he probably feels he is, which amounts to just about the same thing.

	Stephen Fleming: A giant imprint on New Zealand cricket? © Getty Images

Stephen Fleming wasn't a prolific compiler of big scores, he wasn't a great converter of starts, he wasn't able to thrust himself from the ranks of very good batsmen to the greats, but has any other New Zealand player left a greater legacy? For answers, read Dylan Cleaver's article in the Herald on Sunday.

Fleming's imprint on cricket in this country has been massive. Forget the fact he has been New Zealand's best, if under-achieving, batsman for a decade and think bigger picture. He took on the captaincy of a team at 23, a team rife with cliques, factions and ordinary cricketers.

In the same newspaper, Mark Richardson is excited after watching Tim Southee bowl on day one of the Napier Test.

Don Cameron pays tribute to Merv Wallace, who died aged 91 on Friday.

	Adults admire him and kids want to be him © AFP

Ricky Ponting may have sold for less than expected during the Indian Premier League auction, but he's making the big bucks elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Adults admire him and kids want to be him - and that's adding up to a winning financial wicket for the Australian cricket captain.

Industry experts estimate the Tasmanian-born skipper, who ranked as the most marketable sports star last year, is making about $2 million from his Australian endorsement deals alone.

Taking into account his earnings from cricket, the man nicknamed "Punter" is said to be worth $4 million per year. This includes an almost million-dollar base salary from Cricket Australia.

Writing in the Indian Express, GS Vivek says the Ranji Trophy replica handed out to winning teams is bit of a joke.

... At no place did it mention either the name of the winning team, the season, or even the tournament. All it had in terms of legend was the manufacturers’ nameplate. And, just so you don’t forget, the word ‘Silver’ was engraved at the base like a hologram of authenticity. But to top it all, the quality of craftsmanship was such that the figure of the bearded man taking a batting stance — Ranjitsinhji, after whom the tournament is named — that wobbled at the time of presentation has already fallen off.

	Plunkett has a life-altering decision to make © Getty Images

Liam Plunkett says he would be willing to sacrifice his England career if he meant he could donate one of his kidneys to his father. Alan Plunkett has suffered with polycystic kidney disease since his twenties and Liam is the only member of his family with a suitable kidney.

“So far he’s turned it down because he doesn’t want me to sacrifice my England career for him but if it comes to the crunch, then I will definitely do it. Playing for England is a fantastic honour,” said Liam. “But if I had to give it up tomorrow, it wouldn’t even be a scratch compared to helping out my dad.”

Read the full interview at gazettelive.co.uk

	© Getty Images

Chingoka is not the easiest person to interview; part obstinate, part evasive, part combative. Then again, if you were being asked to account for millions of dollars in missing funds - as well as a recent independent audit that allegedly uncovered "serious financial irregularities" within your organisation - you might be a little tetchy, too.

[He] is alleged to have siphoned money earmarked for grassroots cricket in Zimbabwe and, along with aide Ozias Bvute, feathered his own nest. While the country's cricketers are forced to play on unprepared wickets, with no scorers to maintain proper first-class records, Chingoka has stood impervious, safe in the knowledge that he still maintains full voting privileges on the International Cricket Council - the same as India, England and Australia - and therefore remains a sought-after ally. To sport-loving Zimbabweans, black and white, he is the Grinch who stole cricket.

Even by the game's customary standards, it has been a traumatic week, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. Three senior West Indian players putting lucrative club cricket in India before the national team, doomed attempts to suppress the unofficial ICL, a KPMG report into Zimbabwe, the return of Darrell Hair, Charl Langeveldt's pulling out of South Africa's tour of India.

Clearly they [Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shiv Chanderpaul] represent the worst of West Indian cricket, the greed, vanity and vapidity that has ruined a great tradition. Sack the lot and find some youngsters eager to serve. West indies cricket can hardly get any worse. Already the team belongs on the second rank. Money does not talk, it swears.

In a free wheeling chat with Hindustan Times' Subhash Rajta, IS Bindra talks about his role as Principal Advisor to the new ICC President.

On BCCI's alleged domination: We have never had any intention to rule to international cricket. In fact we have fought hard to bring in democratic polity in the ICC. Earlier, a president of the MCC, a club, used to be the president of the ICC and Australia and England had the veto powers. We fought for equality and managed to bring in democratic polity when Colin Cowdrey became the first elected ICC president in 1994. In that light, BCCI just can't be party to any domination, including it's own. But we will certainly use our financial clout to promote and popularise the game. We want to be the engine of growth for the game and that's exactly what we are doing through IPL.

The tunnels beneath Lord's, two of which used to carry tube trains, could be converted into indoor nets or used as walkways to cope with pedestrian congestion which is expected to increase dramatically in the next ten years.

David Batts, the MCC deputy chief executive, said: "It would be great to turn them into something useful.One of the main planks of our masterplan for Lord's is to create a cricket academy. We need new indoor nets and there is no reason why they shouldn't be underground like the ones at the Oval. advertisement

"There are alternatives: the tunnels could become a storage facility, a car park, or a health club. We are receiving proposals from architects and we will come up with a shortlist over the next couple of weeks."

The tunnels used to house trains on the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines. A third tunnel still functions, carrying trains from Marylebone to Birmingham.

Read the full story in today's Daily Telegraph.

The dearth of accommodation in the immediate vicinity of Durham's Riverside might be a distant memory in a few years, with the news that Mike Roseberry, the former Middlesex and Durham batsman, is to build a large hotel.

Having secured planning permission for the venture, about 10 minutes’ drive from the Chester-le-Street Riverside ground – home of Durham County Cricket Club – the former Durham captain is in talks with developers.

This is the latest venture for Roseberry Leisure, which boasts a turnover of £8m from its 12 pubs, three workingmen’s clubs, hotel, 3,000-seat event arena, 120-acre equestrian centre and building firm.

“This is an excellent location. It will prove popular with the business traveller, being next to one of the region’s premier business parks. It could also prove to be a popular venue for cricket teams and cricket fans.”

It will be competing with upmarket hotels in Durham and Chester-le-Street. The England team has used Ramside Hall, Durham, when playing at Chester-le-Street in the past.

nebusiness has the full story.

	It is not just the way Stuart Broad bowls that is striking, it is the manner in which he conducts himself both on and off the pitch © Getty Images

"There are players who put on their England kit for the very first time and, for whatever reason, it just looks right. It is hard to describe why but the sweater, shirt and cap seem to fit. They appear at home. Stuart Broad is one of them," writes Angus Fraser in the Independent.

He [Broad] enjoys goading an opponent and taking them on because he backs himself to get the better of the contest. There have been times when such an approach has not come off, like when he was smacked for six sixes in an over by India's Yuvraj Singh in last year's Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa. Such a mauling would have broken quite a few bowlers but Broad just dusted himself down and went off to the next game. In the one-day series that followed, only two weeks after Singh's fireworks, he showed his character. In five matches Broad took 11 wickets against Sri Lanka at an average of 17.5, conceding just over four runs an over.

Irfan Pathan talks to K Shriniwas Rao of the Indian Express about his time away the national squad and the lessons learnt from the experience.

A lot of things [changed]. I’ve come out stronger from everything that happened. Even at the worst of times, at the back of my mind I knew that things would change for the better. I felt I would soon make a good comeback, and that’s what happened eventually. But I’ve learnt a lot about myself in the process. Time can teach you a lot of things — be it cricket or your personal life. You come to know who your friends are and, interestingly, this is the phase when you realise that you don’t have too many friends.

	Abdur Rauf is intent on becoming a regular in the Pakistan team © PCB

Of course it was [to turn down the offer]. Imagine you or your members turning down the equivalent rise in your own salaries. Could you do it? I had to say no because the only reason I started playing cricket was to represent Pakistan. It's been my lifelong dream to wear our national colours and help Pakistan to win matches. I don't think you can put a price on that. I'll see how it goes over the next few years, I don't want to give up on my dream of playing for Pakistan but if at some point in the future it becomes clear that there's no place for me in the Pakistan team then I'll have to re-evaluate where I stand. I hope that day never comes because every wicket I've ever taken, I've seen as another step in my journey towards playing for the national team.

Rauf also talks about the change in his action and his decision to shorten his run-up.

It's true that I did slow my pace down by altering my run-up and action but it wasn't something I was made to do. It was my own choice, nobody told me to do it. What you have to understand is that it's senseless to continue with such a demanding action for years and years at domestic level. If as a fast bowler you don't get into the national team at an early age, then your chances for making it into the team become very limited. You never stop trying but you need to be honest with yourself about what sort of beating your body can keep taking everyday. You have to economize with your run-up and your action and concentrate on out thinking batsmen rather than just blasting them out.

Harsha Bhogle writes in the Indian Express about his concern for the future of Indian spin after Anil Kumble, and whether the hype and glamour of the celebrities associated with the IPL will detract from the cricket.

Meanwhile, I am starting to get a little concerned, for the first time, about the IPL. Everyday there is a new report about a film star being signed up to do something and everybody seems to be worried about the entertainment around the IPL games. I must be seeing it wrong because I thought the Twenty20 format itself was entertainment. The one thing that the ICC World T-20 taught me was that nothing, absolutely nothing, could compete with the thrill of the cricketing contest. Now I get the feeling that people are trying to stage a variety entertainment show where the cricket match is but one of the components.

	Charl Langeveldt in happier times © Getty Images

Langeveldt's reaction has caught everyone on the wrong foot. He has pulled out of the team, not so much in sympathy with Nel but in protest at the system as a whole.

Indeed, he becomes the first black sportsman to withdraw from a national team because he believes he has been picked for the wrong reasons.

In so doing, Charl Langeveldt has made a statement far more eloquent than anything that has spewed from the mouths of those officials and politicians who would use proud and sensitive players as their own little pawns.

Hartman's view is shared by the Mercury's Mike Greenaway, who feels Langevedlt deserves "our respect for reacting to racial discrimination in our sport and our sympathy for the humiliation he suffered at the hands of social engineers who use players as pawns."

Gary Lemke, the Cape Argus' sports editor, praises Langeveldt's decision.

He did the hardest thing imaginable and turned down the opportunity to play Test cricket for his country. Had he been born 30 years before, Langeveldt would have been denied the chance to represent South Africa because he is black. Now he was selected, because he is black. What irony.

So Langeveldt withdrew. He didn't want to be a quota player.

They should erect a statue in his honour outside the gates of Newlands, and every other cricket ground in the country.

It should remind officials and politicians that quotas in sport is a damaging system that's been abused by officials.

	"Cricket is the perfect platform for our brands to engage with young India," reveals Vijay Mallya, whose company owns the IPL's Bangalore franchise © AFP

The Indian Premier League seems to have caught the attention of Knowledge@Wharton, the Wharton School's online business journal.

Some excerpts from the article:

The franchisees are working overtime to ensure that the new format works. In Hyderabad, Deccan Chronicle is talking about hiring special trains to bring in fans from the hinterland. The train ride will be an experience in itself, with marketing men salivating at the thought of such a focused and captive audience, which also has time on its hands during the journey. In Kolkata, Shah Rukh Khan is planning a special women's stand, while he makes the occasional guest appearance. Meanwhile, the Delhi team has hired an Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) alumnus, a 45-year-old former colonel in the Indian Army, as assistant vice-president (operations). Corporatization and professionalization are clearly the watchwords of the day.

...

The franchisees are confident that they have a winner on their hands. "Cricket is the perfect platform for our brands to engage with young India," Mallya said, while launching his IPL team and logo. "The equity that our brands gain from this association is the real potential for us. We have tied up with Reebok for sporting gear and Louis Philippe for the formals. (Fashion designer) Manoviraj Khosla has designed special uniforms for the cheerleaders. Sale of merchandise and on-ground activities will be used to reach out to the Royal Challengers fan following. We are talking to several partners in the online space to tap young fans, create virtual clubs, explore mobile space and leverage the new media potential."

...

Critics wonder if some companies have been bowled over by the glamour. India Cements vice-chairman and CEO N. Srinivasan had to spend most of an analysts' conference justifying the company's investment. "A misconception is that we are going to invest $90 million," he said. "We have committed ourselves to $9 million a year for the next 10 years for the franchise." By his calculation, there will be "not one rupee going out of my pocket". He added, "It is a win-win situation for India Cements. We should be applauded." But these calculations could be undone if television viewers don't tune in to watch the matches -- at least in the numbers that the sponsors expect.

	Matthew Hoggard claimed a solitary wicket while conceding 151 runs during the Hamilton Test, after which he was dropped © Getty Images

The last time I wrote one of these columns I spoke of how much I was looking forward to playing in the second Test in Wellington. A few hours later I was dropped, which goes to show that you can never take anything for granted. So I have got to make sure that I am physically and mentally prepared to step straight back in for the deciding Test, if required. If not, I will have to make sure that I perform my duties as twelfth man and drinks waiter to the best of my abilities.

I was chuffed that the lads squared the series in Wellington, but I will not pretend that it was easy looking on from the sidelines. It is bad enough watching when you are injured, but worse still when you have been left out. You do not know where to put yourself in the dressing-room. It hurt like hell to be dropped. Playing for England is the biggest honour in the game, something I am aware of every time I pull on the shirt, and I will be doing everything I can to get back in the team as soon as possible.

He continues…

The ones I feel really sorry for are my family, who had flown for 26 hours to watch me play in Wellington. I could not help but feel that I had let them down.

Meanwhile the Sun's John Etheridge reveals Owais Shah's frustration at being continually left out of England's playing XI.

The Telegraph's Michael Henderson criticises the ICC's functioning in light of its decision to offer the chief executive's position to Imtiaz Patel, who is presently the CEO of a South African sports broadcaster, and the reinstatement of Darrell Hair in the Elite panel of umpires.

The International Cricket Council do not have a tune to call their own but if they did it would probably come from the Sondheim songbook: Every Day A Little Death. The game is changing at a mind-boggling rate. From week to week there are developments in what politicians like to call the "narrative", and it is clear that cricket's governing body are hopelessly ill-equipped to provide anything that resembles leadership.

Meeting this week in Dubai, the ICC could not be sure that the chief executive-elect, Imtiaz Patel of South Africa, even wanted the job. As things stand he is mulling it over and has suggested that his present job, as chief executive of SuperSport, the sports broadcaster, provides the fulfillment he needs.

Why would anybody want to run a broken-backed organisation like the ICC? In a sporting world littered with weak leaders, cricket is perhaps the worst of all. As the game is fragmenting before our eyes, those entrusted with its maintenance cannot be trusted with a straightforward change of office.

	"Langeveldt's stand will start the long and weary process of helping the politicians to understand that sport and sportsmen, like politicians, want to be the best." © Getty Images

Charl Langeveldt's understandably distressed, if emotional withdrawal from South Africa's Test tour of India was a serious accident waiting to happen in the republic's sports system, writes Trevor Chesterfield in the Cricketnext.com.

Sources tell of how Langeveldt and Nel were in tears in the room of the team's captain - Graeme Smith, after the squad to tour India was announced. It left a decent man such as Langeveldt embarrassed. The controversy, fired by additional unthinking media reportage, left the Cape Cobras bowler with a sense of humiliation. It is quite understandable while those in Asia view such selection policy as abhorrent as it cuts across race lines, the South African media have already indulged in the contemptible callow error of categorising such as Langeveldt and Nel by colour.

Neil Manthorp looks back at an incident that occured three years ago in South African cricket which he believes was the turning point. Read it at Supercricket.co.za.

Gauteng ... had travelled to Sedgars Park in Potchefstroom with a squad of 13 for the match and had met their transformation target of four black players with Garnett Kruger, Enoch Nkwe, Eugene Moleon and Ashraf Mall.

During a knockabout game of six-a-side soccer half an hour before the match started, Mall was hit in the face by the ball which broke his sun glasses ... With barely 25 minutes to go before the start, Lions coach Shukri Conrad faced the stark reality that one of either Gerrie de Bruin or Juan le Roux, the 12th and 13th men, both right-handed allrounders and both white, would have to play. And yet, the possible political ramifications of making such a decision were so intimidating that not even as forthright a man as Conrad was able to make that call.

Just then, the cricketing gods sent a messenger - his name was Thando Bula. A promising prospect with the North West province, Bula had brought some mates to watch the game and thought he'd try his luck with Conrad for a few free tickets. "Never mind the bloody tickets," was the gist of Conrad's reply, "what's your bloody shirt size?!"

Whether IPL is a boon or bane to Indian cricket remains to be seen when it begins, but one thing is absolutely certain that young Indian cricketers will manipulate all possible loopholes in the system to make it to the under-19 or the under-22 , writes Makarand Waingankar in the Mumbai Mirror.

In the Daily Telegraph, Chico Harlan gives an outsider's interpretation of the one-sided Pura Cup decider between New South Wales and Victoria.

With the Pura Cup final four-fifths done, the Bushrangers had already sustained enough damage to recognise what would happen in the worst-case scenario (they'd lose), and what would happen with a last-day inspired effort (they'd lose), and what would happen with the intervention of a minor miracle (they'd lose).

Cricket, at least to this American outsider's eyes, delivers a reliable supply of oddities, but it saved the best for last, turning its grand final into a grand anticlimax. At least briefly, sport meant inevitability. NSW defeated Victoria like boiling water defeats lobster.

Michael Horan writes in the Herald Sun that reaching five of a possible six domestic finals in the past two years has brought little joy for Victoria.

Malcolm Conn has been an outspoken critic of the ICC's handling of Zimbabwe, among other issues, for a long time, so it is not surprising that he writes in the Australian the ICC "endorsed corruption and racism at its board meeting in Dubai this week".

Despite a KPMG audit finding "serious financial irregularities" with Zimbabwe, no action was taken against the country or its dubious cricket administrators. Nor was the ICC's cricket committee chairman, Sunil Gavaskar, sanctioned for claiming in a newspaper column during the Harbhajan Singh racial abuse fiasco that white South African match referee Mike Procter was biased against Indian players because of the colour of their skin. The ICC made no mention of Gavaskar in its official comment yesterday and failed to release full findings of the Zimbabwe audit.

As expected, the Zimbabwe media have seized on the ICC’s decision not to take any action against Zimbabwe Cricket to attack critics of the regime, most notably the British government.

The Zimbabwe Guardian , which claimed that the independent forensic audit by KPMG had found only “minor improprieties” said that the outcome would be “an embarrassment to British PM Gordon Brown and those politicians in Westminster who expected a different result”

It also quoted an unnamed member of the national side as saying:

“They did not expect to get this result. They wanted Zimbabwe to be found guilty of irregularities. This disappoints the British government who were considering banning Zimbabweans from sporting activities in the UK. Chingoka had always maintained his innocence. This news will not be good news to people like Gordon Brown and Henry Olonga who have strongly criticised Zimbabwe Cricket.”

	Darrell Hair was ranked the second best umpire in the world at the time of his last Test © Getty Images

... it seems that the ICC has taken this decision for pragmatic reasons. And possibly because it has little choice in the matter. Hair's ICC contract runs out this month. Without a robust legal reason for failing to renew it - and Hair was ranked the second best umpire in the world at the time of his last Test - it leaves itself open to a potentially disastrous unfair dismissal action. Hair's own racial discrimination claim was quietly dropped last year, a case presumably bolstered by the fact that his fellow umpire at the Oval, Billy Doctrove, received no censure.

The final point in all this is that Hair is a very good umpire. Currently there's a general perception of a talent vacuum at the very top and, at 55, Hair has a good few years left in him. All in all this might be an ideal moment to move into the portly Australian umpire flammable effigy business.

Paul Holden asks if the Mumbai Indians is the worst IPL team name, whether John Bracewell is on drugs, whether India are taking over the world game and more in his blog Sideline Slogger:

Sri Lanka this week adopted Canada from a cricket development perspective - perhaps NZC could send the Indian board our CV and get us in consideration to become their foster child.

On paper, South African cricket is at the top of the world. But Alex Parker of the Johannesburg daily the Times, feels ICC rankings are rendered dodgy by Bangladesh.

I do fear that being catapulted into the position of “world’s best”, courtesy of Bangladesh’s ineptitude, is more of a cross to bear than a trophy to brandish.

Certainly, the Indians will have much to say on the matter — both with their bats and with their new- found gobbiness. Aussie opener Matthew Hayden recently got into trouble for calling Indian offspinner Harbhajan Singh an “obnoxious little weed”. This was the best description of Harbhajan I’ve ever heard — I find his epithets are better than his offbreaks — and I wonder who his South African target will be: “the best batsman in the world, captain of the best team in the world”, perhaps?

Christian Nicolussi, writing in the Daily Telegraph, looks at the relevance of the domestic game after small crowds have watched a star-studded New South Wales dominate the Pura Cup final against Victoria.

On Tuesday just 1893 fans - including several school groups - turned up at the SCG as the Blues closed in on victory ... Domestic cricket has failed to capture interest, with just 11,893 fans making their way to the historic SCG the past four days. Not even cheap $10 tickets, glorious autumn sunshine and the chance to watch Australia superstars Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark and Michael Clarke could boost numbers.

In the Age Lyall Johnson hears the jokes about whether sport’s “mercy rule” needs a name change to the “Victorian rule” after their treatment at the SCG.

The Adelaide Oval’s A$90 million re-development, which was to be ready for the 2010-11 Ashes, has been delayed due to concerns over costs, the Australian reports.

Inderjit Singh Bindra may have lost out to Imtiaz Patel in the race for the post of chief executive of the ICC, but his new position as the principle advisor doesn't make his position any less powerful. Bindra, who will report directly to the president, will be principally in charge of handling the various major properties of the ICC, overseeing the smooth conduct of major events, only increasing India's clout within the ICC. Anand Vasu of the Hindustan Times has more.

It used to be called the Imperial Cricket Conference, it’s now called the International Cricket Council but soon people will be referring to it as the Indian Cricket Club. This is not because Imtiaz Patel, a South African of Indian origin has been appointed the Chief Executive Officer, but because Inderjit Singh Bindra has been made principal advisor to the ICC, an all-powerful post that gives him the widest range of powers of anyone in the ICC barring the president, a post that Sharad Pawar will next fill. Pawar will succeed David Morgan in June 2010.

In The Daily Telegraph Simon Briggs writes:

Yesterday's meeting of the ICC in Dubai was another bizarre day in the history of a bizarre organisation, adding further fuel to the theory that the ICC are struggling to cope with a rapidly changing game. As usual, the ICC have failed to reconcile the widely differing viewpoints among their 10 full members, and come up with a clumsy fudge.

By banning the ICL cricketers from participating in tournaments and stopping the pensions of former cricketers, the BCCI could face a legal confrontation to match the same between the English board and World Series Cricket in 1978, writes Makarand Waingankar in the Hindu.

The ICL-IPL tussle has sidelined the issue concerning the cricketers’ livelihood. During the Insole-Greig case hearing, one of the main questions that Justice Slade asked was how could the cricket boards deprive the professional cricketers from earning their livelihood.

In his judgment he agreed that though respective boards had acted in the best interests of the game, he felt, legally a professional cricketer is entitled to make as much living as any professional in other fields.

	Bill Brown was not only an Invincible but also Australia's last remaining link to pre-war Test cricket © Getty Images

Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail that he visited Bill Brown the day before he died, as severe pain coursed through his body.

He could barely talk but though breathing heavily I heard him mouth a word which sounded like "whisky". When I asked whether he wanted a drink he nodded, so I dashed to the local bottle shop and got a bottle of Johnnie Walker and two glasses, putting a nip in each.

Then I noticed his eyes were closed and his breathing more subdued. Accepting we had spoken our last words I quietly said: "it's OK old mate, you don't have to drink anything" and I swear I felt my heart slide through the soles of my shoes as I patted his hand.

Then, guess what? His eyes opened and he said: "what do (you) think I am . . . a man or a bloody mouse . . . where's my whisky". His eyebrows arched and his mouth curled up at the corner as it always did when he delivered a cute line. It was one last little treat from the man the cricket world loved.

Mike Coward in the Australian writes that Brown was more than just an Invincible.

Apart from his distinguished playing record, this generous, self-effacing man had further claims to fame. He was the last survivor of the first televised cricket match at Lord's in June, 1938 when he carried his bat for a masterful 206 and identical, controversial run out decisions in successive months against India at Sydney in 1947 led to an immediate addition to the lexicon of the game.

For a man renowned for his fastidiousness on and off the ground it was surprising he repeatedly left the non-striker's crease before the bowler, Vinoo Mankad, delivered the ball. On both occasions in the Australian XI match and the second Test Mankad issued a warning to Brown before removing the bails. Today, this rare form of dismissal is known as Mankading.

	© Getty Images

It's not often that the selectors get it right, but in ruthlessly dropping Harmison and Hoggard, they played a masterstroke, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.

After the Hamilton debacle it was generally agreed that someone would have to go - and that someone would be Steve Harmison. But the simultaneous dropping of Matthew Hoggard took most by surprise.

A great deal will depend on the result in Napier as to how England's winter will be perceived, writes Simon Wilde in the Times:

It is the men with the new faces, untainted by the catastrophe in Australia last winter, who have enhanced their reputations ... Ryan Sidebottom, Stuart Broad and Tim Ambrose to name but three. Of the famed Ashes winners of 2005, life has been less rich.

There has been little joy for Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Strauss, Matthew Hoggard or Steve Harmison. Hoggard and Harmison are ending the winter outside the XI and have just watched James Anderson and Broad bowl England to victory with control and skill. Hoggy and Harmy may be back, but they may not. Napier may tell us that.

The English fans know how to support - their backing of their team is undiminished no matter how hopeless the state of play appears, or how many runs Monty Panesar leaks whilst trying to be hidden at mid-on. Their pain threshold knows levels much higher than any this NZ side can possibly inflict in a three-Test series.

The ICC must expel Zimbabwe in the wake of a damning audit and sanction Sunil Gavaskar, chairman of the ICC's cricket committee, for his newspaper column in reaction to match referee Mike Procter's imposition of a three-Test ban on Harbhajan Singh, says Malcolm Conn in the Australian.

If it does not, this hopelessly compromised organisation will reinforce its ruined reputation as a bunch of serving cronies with no interest in the good of the game.

Should Zimbabwe stay intact as a full voting but non-playing Test member of the ICC and Gavaskar not be punished for claiming that white match referee Mike Procter is racially biased against Indian players because of their colour, then the very worst fears of cricket's present and future will be reinforced

South Africa's Times claims that the forensic audit will slam the Zimbabwe board.

It is known to paint a damning picture of Zimbabwe cricket’s finances. Singled out for particular censure are ZCU president Peter Chingoka and CEO Ozias Bvute. Depending on the severity of the penalties against the two, they could be removed from their positions on the relevant ICC sub-committees.

Bvute sits on the chief executive’s committee, while Chingoka sits on the governance review committee, a rather rich state of affairs given that corporate governance does not appear to be Zimbabwe cricket’s strongest suit. The final report represents at least two years of arduous work by the ICC and the auditors, in which they have received very little help from the ZCU.

The ICC, like FIFA, has to take control of the game and make it possible for the players to earn good money while still playing for their country, says Tony Becca in the Jamaica Gleaner.

Proof that there are some fairly sick people in the world comes from US magazine Sports Illustrated which reports that the hotel room in which Bob Woolmer died has become a tourist attraction.

"Foreigners are still intrigued by his death," said Lloyd Bremner, the hotel's general manager. "It's pretty amazing," he said. "Some people request to be in it; some want to be on the same floor."

In the Guardian Vic Marks describes an edgy and windy day at the Basin Reserve where England made several fielding errors.

Collingwood was insecure at second slip; this time Alastair Cook was unable to cling on to a blinder. And, of course, England donated their usual quota of overthrows. Graeme Swann came on as a sub and needlessly, laughably, threw the ball over Tim Ambrose's head for four. Farcical fielding, except that the bowler, Ryan Sidebottom, wasn't laughing.

All this and having to cope with Brendon McCullum as well. Early on he survived a confident appeal for a bat-pad catch to gully off the increasingly red-faced Sidebottom. It looked a good shout but Umpire Koertzen could hear nothing. How could he with this wind belting down the pitch?

David Gower is impressed by the batting skills of England's new wicketkeeper, Tim Ambrose. He writes in the Times:

What he gave England, especially on Thursday, was fight. He was able to lead a genuine counterattack to the extent that Paul Collingwood at the other end was able to play the less exuberant role without any sense that he, the senior player, had to make the running. The partnership seems to work. Collingwood was also able to show the new man how to play those same problem deliveries, getting himself into line better to allow him to get bat on ball more often.

Michael Atherton believes if England go on to win the Test, it will be because Ambrose's hundred. He writes in the Telegraph:

It was a hundred laced with good shots, mostly in that infuriating arc for bowlers and captains between backward point and third man. His cutting, in particular, was as impressive as anything we have seen since - well, since Andrew Strauss was in his pomp (sadly, a fading memory) - and it was the most important batting contribution by an England wicketkeeper since Geraint Jones joined Andrew Flintoff in a match-winning partnership at Trent Bridge three years ago.

	Collective hara-kiri was given a new meaning as each batsman to a man devised newer and more ingenious methods of gifting wickets to the South African bowlers © AFP

Although, the captain and the team management spared no pains in informing anybody and everybody within earshot or to those who cared to listen anyway, that even 230 runs on the board would just about suffice to put the fear of god into the side batting second. This assertion was somewhat tempered by the time the second and third ODI came around, to how comfortable we were likely to be in the driver's seat if we just batted all of the 50 overs we were entitled to. The fact that in the end we could achieve neither only reinforced the belief that we are still struggling to perfect the art of chewing gum and crossing the street at the same time. Collective hara-kiri was given a new meaning as each batsman to a man devised newer and more ingenious methods of gifting wickets to the South African bowlers. Here is a group of returning tourists who are now firmly convinced Christmas in this part of the world comes twice a year. Here was oriental hospitality gone haywire for sure.

In the same paper, Mohammad Isam remembers young Manjural Islam who died in a motor accident last year.

Just two days before his death, he wanted to take me and a few other teammates for a walk around the lake to calm us down after our fifth successive loss but later we decided to have tea outside the Dhanmondi ground.

"Never ever bow down" and "Cricket ends with the day. Tomorrow is a new beginning" were just some of the words I recall from that day. But most of us, CCS players, knew that he was one of those cricketers who hated to lose but he was also one who recovered from a loss very fast and moved on.

	James Anderson: England first, Auckland next © Getty Images

Don't blame Auckland Cricket and Auckland coach Mark O'Donnell for James Anderson's bowling heroics on day two of the current test match, writes Mark Richardson in the New Zealand Herald.

If you want to blame someone, blame New Zealand Cricket- if you want to absolve the NZ top order of any responsibility. To leave O'Donnell carrying the can is too simplistic. What recent events have shown is a lack of cohesion between NZC and the provinces.

There will be a game within a game when New Zealand meets England this week in Napier in what is shaping as the series decider, writes Dylan Cleaver in the same newspaper.

The IPL continues to be a point of discussion. Paul Lewis, in the same paper, says, in terms of sporting endeavour and prestige, the IPL is to cricket what diarrhoea is to dodgy curry houses - an unfortunate by-product.

Richard Boock has some thoughts in the Sunday Star Times. "First it was burnout - deemed the crime of the century until the players saw the colour of India's money," he writes. "Now it's test match preparation. Overrated apparently. Not needed at all, if you listen to the New Zealand captain. If it wasn't so nauseatingly transparent it would be funny.

Five New Zealand players are set to play in the IPL which clashes with the start of their tour of England. New Zealand Cricket will take a decision next week on whether to allow the players to participate in the IPL games or to ask them to be in England for the warm-up matches at the start of the tour. New Zealand Herald's David Leggat analyses the upsides and downsides of the three likely scenarios.

Arriving in England with one-third of the squad absent and a group of fill-ins being recruited out of league cricket. Bad look, bad for morale. The players' perspective, as put more than once by Vettori, is that appearances don't matter.It is the modern young man's view in a rapidly changing cricket world. Pragmatism in this case would allow the players the best of all worlds - pick up some cash in India, then move on to what they all insist is where their heart lies, playing for their country. NZC's difficulty is finding a happy middle ground. They won't win in the court of public opinion if they let the players arrive late in England.

In the same paper, Adam Parore writes that for Daniel Vettori the smart money lies in taking the high ground.

At issue is about US$300,000 ($367,500) of lost earnings if he makes the call to be on tour with the Black Caps in England from day one. In the overall scheme of things this is small bananas for Dan. He will make at least $1 million per annum for each of the next two years and I would imagine he will then sign for a further three as well. As it is, he will pick up about $300,000 for the couple of weeks that he will be on IPL duty ...

Dale Steyn brings an uncommon freshness to his profession of fast bowling, a sense that he is a human being of normal height and build at once amazed and disturbed by his ability to take someone’s head off with a shiny, stitched orb, writes Telford Vice in the Johannesburg-based Mail & Guardian.

Not for him the mustachioed madness that Merv Hughes and Dennis Lillee brought to cricket along with all that biker leather and the brazenly bared chests and big hair that, 30 years ago, might have been a hit at your friendly neighbourhood gay bar.

Steyn is certainly no English fop in the way of Graham Dilley, but rather that than the Poms’ modern yob squad, represented by the likes of Andrew Flintoff -- who else would answer to the nickname of a prehistoric cartoon character? -- and Steve Harmison, who, in the words of former England coach Duncan Fletcher, “gets homesick when he fetches the paper from his postbox”.

There is nothing remotely Ambrosial about Steyn, a fact that might melt Curtly’s permanent glare just a touch, and he is probably not in danger of waggling his noggin in the way that Waqar Younis would when a screaming yorker veered from outside off-stump all the way to the fine leg boundary.

No matter, because what connects all these fine bowlers is a dash of the quick stuff: speed, and not the kind that will get you arrested.

Also read Vata Ngobeni writing in the Independent Online on the Andre Nel issue.

	Stuart MacGill believes he's already on the plane to the West Indies © Getty Images

Stuart MacGill and Bryce McGain will go head-to-head in the Pura Cup final, which started on Saturday, as the main contenders for a spin spot on the West Indies tour in May. Malcolm Conn writes about the battle in the Australian.

MacGill, 37, and Victoria's McGain, 36 in 10 days, ply the same trade on a cricket field and are the two oldest players in the game but, for all these obvious similarities, have little in common, including their attitude to the West Indian tour.

Despite playing just his second match for New South Wales after a three-month lay-off following wrist surgery, MacGill believes he is already on the plane for what will be his third tour of the West Indies ... McGain, who has exploded on to the state scene in little more than a year following Shane Warne's retirement, says he can't afford to think beyond his next over.

In the Age Chloe Saltau also talks to McGain, who no longer plays the trumpet or works in IT, while Greg Baum interviews David Hussey.

Philip Derriman, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, takes a look back at the 1984-85 Sheffield Shield final between New South Wales and Queensland.

	Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Small town, big success © AFP

Shantanu Guha Ray goes to Mahendra Singh Dhoni's hometown of Ranchi to try uncover the reasons behind Dhoni's rise to the top despite hailing from a small town and not having either formal training or a godfather to push his case. He writes in Tehelka:

In a world of desperate image-building, it’s important that Dhoni doesn’t care. The core value he brings to the job is level-headedness — the clear sense of reality that helps a small town boy prioritise life. This means he has the ability to treat cricket as a game, not as religion. This means it makes him unafraid to take his chances, to run the impossible risk and win the impossible gambit.

He retraces Dhoni's progress from the initial interest in football to the current standing as a cricket icon whose fans "buy garlands and worship — in the absence of the man himself — his bikes". He also compares Dhoni's captaincy with that of his two immediate predecessors.

In Dhoni’s ability to walk the middle ground lies the essential metaphor of his personality: character is fortune. Saurav Ganguly wore the cloak of captaincy with the arrogance of a Caesar, the mantle falling easily on his stylish shoulders. Rahul Dravid, on the other hand, wore the coveted badge almost like a crown of thorns, as if acting out a middle class mindset in which success or failure are the only parameters that define ability ... In Dhoni's worldview, playing is more important than winning, and winning is more important than verbal duels.

Sitting at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula, Rahut Bhatia notices that there's a distinct buzz around the small ground. But why, after two days of cricket bereft of any emotional attachment, is the crowd noisier?

Read on at Rediff.com to find out.

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Presumably he [ECB chairman] Giles Clarke is motivated by a desperation to generate enough new television money (Sony paid £500million for ten years for the IPL rights) to be able to pay the England team even more to keep them free of the IPL's clutches.

Praising the Twenty20 Cup as “the ECB's greatest marketing success and a boon to all 18 first-class clubs, not least because their supporters, including some new ones attracted by the format, identify closely with the local team”, Martin-Jenkins believes tinkering with the format is “overkill” that will “only confuse”.

A cluster of post-lunch wickets in Wellington suggested WG Grace was wrong when he famously advised against ever bowling first, says Vic Marks, in the Guardian, on the first day's play between England and New Zealand in Wellington.

Five down and here we go again. Yet England don't always bow to the inevitable, either. And it was a new, fresh face that arrested the decline. Tim Ambrose came out and played without paranoia, as he did for Sussex, as he does for Warwickshire. He had the effrontery to hit Oram for two boundaries, doubling the number the big man has conceded in the series. The pitch was sleeping again. Was Vettori right to bowl? What's a good score? Er ... I'll tell you in two or three days' time.

"Short men are handy cutters and pullers sometimes as well, and [Tim] Ambrose is no exception. Little chance was missed to slash square or chop down to third-man. An occasional one went over the slips," says Mike Selvey on Ambrose's 97 which helped stem England's top-order collapse.

	Michael Henderson: Vaughan has proved an outstanding leader and it is important for English cricket that he stays in charge for as long as his bones can bear it © Getty Images

"By now England were supposed to be the best cricket team in the world," says Angus Fraser in the New Zealand Herald. "Well, that was the view of the tens of thousands of celebrating England supporters who gathered in Trafalgar Square the day after Michael Vaughan's side regained the Ashes in 2005 and the England and Wales Cricket Board who basked in the glory and made bold predictions of world domination. It has not quite worked out like that."

Then came the Ashes, a victory that made every player feel like a superstar. MBEs were handed out as if they were sweets at a primary school and Andrew Flintoff was named as the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year. In the aftermath, the players saw an opportunity to capitalise on their success and make loads of money. Appearances were made here, endorsements signed there and suddenly the focus turned outward. The complete overreaction of the English media and everyone associated with English cricket probably led some players to believe that a lifetime's work had been completed. So the starting point of the slide was the focus of the team.

"[Michael] Vaughan must now rely on younger men, the [Stuart] Broads and [James] Andersons, to get England out of the hole they dug for themselves," writes Michael Henderson in the Telegraph. "If, however, they fail to respond to his leadership, he may be forced to look at his own position, which is not something any captain wants to be doing with another Ashes contest no more than 15 months away."

	Harsha Bhogle: 'Maybe it is the shape of things to come, maybe the new ‘V’ will be behind the wicket rather than in front of it' © Getty Images

"Sachin Tendulkar throws up a couple of extremely valid points in his interview to The Hindu a couple of days ago. And, as he often does with the bat, surprises us with a third," writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express.

He thought Australia went on the defensive very quickly and points out how a deep point appeared almost inevitably after an aggressive shot. There was a hint of that during the Ashes series as well and it raises an interesting issue about teams like Australia that win, if not all, at least most of the time. Just as teams that don’t win often enough find themselves lost when victory is sighted, teams that win all the time can find themselves searching for ideas when a relatively new situation presents itself. It has long been my view that Australia are awesome when they are front runners, a great and often elusive quality in itself, but get a bit confused when they fall behind.

	Matthew Mott says coming up against Brett Lee wasn't “a hell of a lot of fun" © Getty Images

Victoria will run into Brett Lee in the Pura Cup final on Saturday and Andrew Stevenson, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says only four of them have played against Australia’s fastest bowler in a first-class match. Matthew Mott, the New South Wales coach, remembers his experience.

"It was when he was young, and speed was everything, and he'd just come in and try and knock blokes' heads off,” Mott said. “It wasn't a hell of a lot of fun to face him. And he's obviously a lot more accomplished bowler now than he was then." The match will be Lee’s first Pura Cup final.

In the Australian Malcolm Conn says Simon Katich and David Hussey have the most to gain during the decider.

The two leading Pura Cup run-scorers this year are not considered among the best 25 players in the country because neither has a Cricket Australia contract. As a result there is likely to be some soul-searching by the four-man selection panel during and after the Pura Cup final given the number of players without contracts named in the Pura Cup and state one-day teams of the year.

For a look at the domestic all-star sides go here. The Age wonders whether the Sheffield Shield will return next season.

"By the end of this week South Africa will be the No1 one-day team in world cricket, if all goes according to plan," writes Archie Henderson in the Times, the Johannesburg-based daily.

Please note, the Proteas could be No1 in the world by Friday lunchtime, not necessarily the best in the world. Not until they can convincingly beat the Aussies at home, defeat England in the one-dayers later this year and take care of India, the hottest team in the world right now, can they be considered the “best”. Nevertheless, we should enjoy our team’s progress while it lasts.

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"How was [Mahendra singh Dhoni] Dhoni from Ranchi spotted? Neither Greg Chappell nor Dean Jones know the way to Ranchi. Like many others, they too don’t know the process that has helped these district boys make an impact on Indian cricket," writes Makarand Waingankar in the Mumbai Mirror.

In 2001, as the consultant of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, I had introduced the system of Talent Resource Development Wing (TRDW). The success of this concept made the then President of the BCCI Jagmohan Dalmiya form a Talent Resource Development Wing for unearthing the talent in India. The job description of the TRDOs was to assess the talent in a prescribed form and feed the data into specially developed software for it to get analysed. The talent-assessment system of the TRDW convinced the selectors that there was enough talent to choose from. Today the majority of players who are in the Indian team are the product of the TRDW.

	Testing times for David Morgan © Getty Images

"Now, however, 99 years after patrician administrators from England, Australia and South Africa first established the Imperial Cricket Conference, it is legitimate to ask whether the ICC can maintain a relevant role in the game," writes Paul Kelso in the Guardian.

Next Monday the ICC board will gather in Dubai for a meeting that represents a genuine fork in the road. The formal agenda looks as sterile as the air-conditioned tower block from which cricket is now notionally ruled, but the issues could not be more incendiary. Zimbabwe, the future of the World Cup, the international calendar, the Indian Twenty20 leagues and the appointment of a new chief executive are all due to be discussed. After a decade of mismanagement, amid unprecedented commercial and political pressures and with its members increasingly placing narrow self-interest over the collective good, we are about to discover whether the ICC is still capable of governing the game.

"Right from my first tour to Australia in 1991, it has been tough, but fantastic. It was challenging for a 17-18 year-old youngster. The hundred at Perth in 1991 changed me as a player and I felt I had arrived in international cricket," Sachin Tendulkar told G Viswanath in an interview in the Hindu.

Clayton Murzello also interviewed Tendulkar in the Mid-Day.

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Brian Lara hit a patch of poor form during the inaugural ICL tournament in 2007 and is missing the current tournament because of an injured wrist. Anand Vasu, of the Hindustan Times, spoke to Lara on the ICL, players having more options than just playing for their country, and India v Australia.

Drawing away from the monopoly the boards had over their players? If you ask a New Zealand cricketer what his financial terms are with his country you'll realise that the IPL and ICL are good avenues. Stanford was not under the WICB in its first year but since it has come under the official umbrella. Let's see what happens in India with the leagues. Equally let's see what the boards do in countries like New Zealand. I've played Test matches in New Zealand where there are two men and a dog watching while next door there are 60,000 people watching a Rugby game. So the NZC have to get their act together and make sure they keep their cricketers. You can't blame a young man for going out there and seeking to make a living for himself and his family.

"I can foresee a train smash happening. There is no doubt that the ICL and the IPL are on a collision course that will take some serious navigating to avoid a severe confrontation," writes Mike Haysman in Supersport.co.za.

The most relevant aspects about the banning of ICL players are only starting to surface now. Tim May, the chief executive of FICA, the International Players' Association, got it spot on during the week in an article published by Cricinfo. May made it clear that "FICA and its player associations will defend the right of players to seek employment without fear of unreasonable restraint of trade, discrimination and the collusion of a number of bodies to monopolise employment and restrict movement in the market".

"There is more money in the game now and not just a little more, tons more. Choices choices choices! It is an interesting time but also a very delicate time as those who are faced with choices right now would not want to go down the wrong road and lose out, says Mpumelelo Pommie Mbangwa.

	Kyle Mills, along with Chris Martin, forms New Zealand's new-ball attack now that Shane Bond has signed for the ICL © Getty Images

Stuart Broad coming in for Steve Harmison who fails a medical examination: his heart appears to be missing. Broad will be cited for verbal abuse at some point as well, despite being something of a babyface.

Ian Bell to score 100 and lift his Test match shirt to reveal an “I’m 100% Ginger And Proud Of It” tattoo on his belly, having visited a Cuba St parlour the night before. New Zealand’s only ever red-headed international cricketer erupts from the Basin bank to congratulate him. Who is it?

In the New Zealand Herald Chris Barclay writes that the post-Shane Bond era has started smoothly with New Zealand's new-ball attack - Chris Martin and Kyle Mills - revelling in their new found Test cricket responsibilities.

Dominion Post's Jonathan Millmow believes Jamie How's second crack at international cricket is proving more successful than his first and were they to call for nominations today for the country's most improved batsman he would be top of everyone's list.

Australia's decision to postpone their tour to Pakistan has drawn a sharp reaction from Khalid Hussain of the Times.

Cutting a long story short, one has to say that Australia’s decision to stay away from Pakistan is another huge loss for a country where cricket is perhaps the biggest passion. It might sound like a cliche but by chickening out of what was a challenging assignment, the Aussies have handed the terrorists operating in this unfortunate country a major victory.

That said, Cricket Australia’s decision to hold back its cricketers came as no surprise. All the wrong signals had been coming from Down Under for quite a few months. The Australians, it is believed, made up their mind against touring Pakistan after the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto last December but players like Andrew Symonds had been cribbing about the visit much before that tragedy.

Western Australian batsman Luke Pomersbach was willing to play in the IPL for "free" but he's been signed up by Mohali for $54,000.

"I probably should not have said that (I would play for free) - but what I meant by that was it is going to be an honour to play with such good cricketers," Pomersbach told the Sydney Morning Herald. "I am going to try and talk to them as much as I can, and learn whatever I can from them. How they go about things, and what they think about before they go out to bat. There is a lot to learn from."

Mohali also paid $US150,000 for New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Mills.

"When I signed the contract a couple of weeks ago, my reserve was down around the $US150,000 mark. . . I'm happy with the $US150,000," Mills told Radio Sport. "It's going to be interesting for me to see how Brett Lee would bowl to Ricky Ponting or how Sangakkara would face Muttiah Muralitharan, so it would be an exciting time."

Another Mohali buy, James Hopes was also thrilled with the opportunity.

"The money aside, the opportunity to play against some of the players that are going over there, including guys from the team that you play with," Hopes told ABC News. "I've never played against Andrew Symonds before so to play against guys like that, it's going to be a once in a lifetime experience."

"Whether it is a wind of change, helping England's team to blow hot rather than cold, or just a 60 miles per hour buster screaming through the Cook Straits, a cricket match in Wellington tends to test a team's aerodynamics as much as their mettle," writes Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph.

Richard Hadlee also says that the strong wind will be a factor in the second Test.

It is difficult for batsmen, bowlers and fielders to combat, and the constant wind gusts are very off-putting for bowlers in their delivery stride, batsmen picking up their bats in the back lift, and fielders trying to catch a swirling ball. There may be the odd still day but one thing is for sure, somehow the wind will play its part during the game as the ground is unprotected. The cold, southerly wind from the sea blows hard from mid-off to fine leg. The northerly wind, although usually warmer, blows from mid-on to third man. Swing bowlers often prosper, but someone has to bowl into it possibly for 20 overs in a day, which in itself is very energy-sapping exercise.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald the withdrawal of the Australians from the trip to Pakistan is not a surprise.

Truth to tell it would not have been much of a tour. Already the trip had been curtailed, with two Test matches and five ODIs replacing the full program. Every player was to be given a personal guard and asked to remain inside luxurious hotels. Every spectator was to be searched umpteen times by soldiers and policemen. It is not much of a way to play any sport. And local fans hardly flock to Test matches in the best of times.

In the Australian Malcolm Conn says the cancellation of the tour may lead to Cricket Australia staging a short one-day series. If that happens the players signed to the Indian Premier League will be staying at home.

It is unlikely that the coaching staff will want their best players involved in a helter skelter entertainment package without Cricket Australia coaching or medical support in India on the eve of a West Indies tour which contains three Tests, five one-day matches and a Twenty20 game. At the very least Cricket Australia will program a training camp at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane for the beginning of May before the team leaves later in the second week.

The decision to postpone the tour prevents the possibility of a rift between Cricket Australia and its players, AAP reports.

Australia’s Pura Cup final starts on Saturday and the Daily Telegraph reports Victoria will face a New South Wales squad worth more than A$6 million. Brett Lee, Michael Clarke, Stuart Clark and Nathan Bracken have returned while Phil Jaques, Brad Haddin, Stuart MacGill and Simon Katich will also be there. “The multi-million-dollar line-up would hold their own against the likes of England, New Zealand and the West Indies,” the paper said.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Andrew Stevenson writes about how Lee, Clark and Bracken have pushed out the bowlers who carried the team into the final.

	Mike Selvey: 'Should Harmison be dropped, what should be done with him? Unless injuries crept into the squad, it would signal the end of his tour, and perhaps at the age of just 29 the end of his Test career.' © Getty Images

"There have been a lot of amazing wins in between - The Oval 1999, Brisbane
1986 to name two - but the thing that connects Sunday’s amazing scenes with Headingley was that this was a team effort," writes Hamish McDouall about New Zealand's victory in Hamilton on Stuff.co.nz.

"We [England] are only 15 Tests away from an Ashes series and we don't even look like competing with Australia, never mind beating them," writes Geoffrey Boycott in the Daily Telegraph. "We seem to have learnt nothing from last winter's Australia debacle where we lacked preparation and commitment for the battle."

"Most pressing when the talking heads gather will be the fate of Steve Harmison, who has cut a forlorn figure and not just with the ball in his hand," says Mike Selvey in the Guardian. "Fundamentally Harmison is a decent, honest man, so it is genuinely saddening to see what is happening to him. No one can doubt that he tries and yet nothing is happening. He is finding fast bowling like wading through treacle."

After all the discussions, they may want to keep Harmison in the team on the premise that historically he does tend to get better as a series progresses. That, however, is no basis for his retention, although the decision might be easier if there were players hammering on the door and demanding inclusion. As it is, James Anderson came out of his match for Auckland with an innings defeat and not many wickets, and Stuart Broad is working hard on fundamental flaws in his action, which is hardly a resounding testament for his inclusion. Those who think he has pace like fire are misguided too: he is deceptively slow.

Angus Fraser writes in the Independent that "England cannot go into tomorrow night's second Test in Wellington with the same team as that comprehensively beaten by New Zealand on Sunday."

	It will be a while before Zaheer Khan returns to the international game © Getty Images

The important thing is to take your time to recover and not rush back. You have to be not just 100 per cent, but 120 or even 200 per cent fit when you return to action. I don’t want to have any doubts running in my mind when I am playing an international game because it’s a pressure game and you cannot let your team down.

Personally, I would like to play some domestic games or even club games to be sure about myself. That’s what the doctors also said, you need to build it up, because you lose a lot of strength in the area of injury and one has to get it back slowly and not injure other muscles.

The ICC's latest executive meeting will take place in Dubai next week and on the agenda will be who replaces Malcolm Speed as chief executive. The frontrunner appears to be Inder Singh Bindra, a powerful figure on the subcontinent, and in The Times Christopher Martin-Jenkins says there is a real risk of the already strong influence of India become too great.

If Bindra were to be appointed, he would be joined in Dubai within two years by Sharad Pawar, the Indian cabinet minister who chairs the BCCI and will succeed David Morgan as ICC chairman in June 2010. Such a stranglehold by the country that generates almost two thirds of the world's income from cricket through its massive worldwide television audience could not be in the sport's best interests.

Overjoyed by the victory of 'the worst team in 40 years' over England, Paul Holden analyses the Hamilton Test in his blog the Sideline Slogger.

Let’s reflect on what brought England to its knees at Hamilton. I think it was a combination of momentum, clear leadership and sheer determination. We thundered into this Test match on the back of a one-day series win, with a captain leading the way and at the top of his game.

By contrast, England has a mish-mash of captaincy options. Collingwood steps aside for Vaughan while the ever-present chirper Kevin Pietersen is hard to ignore. He thought he was the captain in the one-dayers so presumably he throws his rand’s worth around in the Test match dressing room as well. KP may not be the asset to his captains that KP thinks he is.

Also listen to the Beige Brigade's podcast on 'Thumping Poms in the Tron'.

New Zealand Herald's Chris Rattue writes that what was supposed to be a very good English team with Ashes-winning strains have been embarrassed by a melting pot of promise stirred by a couple of clever veterans in Daniel Vettori and Stephen Fleming.

The Seddon Park groundsman is celebrating as hard as the New Zealand team. "I am rapt," he tells the Waikato Times.

In Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror Neil Wijeratne gets nostalgic on the fixtures between St Josephs and St Peters, one of the traditional schools cricket rivalries in Sri Lanka.

Wijeratne waxes eloquent while recalling a time of grandeur, of charismatic school captains, blue and white flags blowing in the breeze, and a most interesting thriller in 1962.

Once upon a time, it all began near the College gate when we were about to enter the school premises. As usual there were pavement hawkers selling American comic books, toffees and lollypops; hot milk tea, pineapple and mangoes and many more things. But on this particular day, I noticed something different. There was a man selling small “Blue and White” flags. It attracted me. After all it’s our college colours and our college flag. Like many other college boys, I too wanted to own one of those flags. I begged with Marthinamma, the old maid who accompanied me to school, carrying my suitcase filled with school books in one hand and a huge lunch container on the other. Instantly she refused my request. But I was keen to possess a small, lovely “Blue and White” flag and to wave it shouting aloud “Come on Joes”. A lengthy pleading with Marthinamma, resulted in having a small “Blue and white” flag in my hand.

Do read on ....

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times carries a tale of bailas, verses and boundary-line heroes who ungrudgingly served the cause of Royal Cricket.

	Neil McKenzie’s innings was, for him and a few others, an innings of great significance © AFP

There is little worth reflecting over in South Africa’s massive second-Test victory against Bangladesh, says Ray White of the Witness. After the slight embarrassment of the first Test, the home team was disposed of in a suitable manner with regard to the respective status two participants in an unequal struggle.

But what White does pick out is comeback man Neil McKenzie's maiden double-century, in any form of the game. Having survived all the shenanigans that preceded the selection of this particular squad together with his failures in the first Test, says White, it was vital for McKenzie that he make the most of his remaining opportunity before the team to tour India was chosen.

From the team’s perspective, it is important that McKenzie continues to prosper at the front of the batting order because it is now clear that Gibbs has not been able to revise his technique to enable him to cope with skilled new-ball bowlers who are keenly aware of his technical frailties. There are also disturbing rumours that Gibbs has become gun shy at the prospect of dealing with determined pacemen such as Brett Lee. No other opening batsman in domestic cricket suggests that he is ready for promotion so McKenzie may be the only card left for the selectors.

One wonders what went through Jacque Kallis’s mind as he watched the long partnership between his captain and McKenzie. So often in the recent past he has had to rescue his team from the direst of starts. He may have enjoyed putting his feet up for a time but as the day progressed he must have begun to wonder at the unfairness of the situation. His bowling had saved the team in the first Test but now he had to watch as two lesser batsmen filled their boots. Still it is a team game and Kallis has not always put his team’s interests ahead of his own.

Having won the Under-19 World Cup two editions in a row, Pakistan's young heroes returned empty-handed from Kuala Lumpur this year. While the side failed to defend its title, the Dawn's M Wasim says the overall performance was quite praiseworthy.

Last summer Allan Donald was the man who had the problem of trying to sort out Steve Harmison as he began his spell as England bowling coach. By all accounts he was making a good impression - hardly surprising for someone with 330 Test wickets - but when it came to taking the job full time he said 'no thanks'. After a brief spell back in the media he returned to coaching with Warwickshire, the county where he made his name as a lightening young quick. George Dobell from the Birmingham Post caught up with him and found a man very content with his decision.

"To be honest with you, I wouldn’t have taken the England job even if this role at Warwickshire hadn’t come up," Donald says. "Working with the England team was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it and feel I made a positive impact. And, I have to say, the ECB were brilliant. They are a highly professional organisation and, in many ways, everything about the job was great.

"But I’ve been on the road for years. At some stage you have to put the family first. I want to see my children grow up.

Rarely have England looked so devoid of energy as they plunged to a miserable defeat in Hamilton, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.

This line-up was once regarded as aggressive in the modern mould. Occasionally such tigerish aggression might backfire. That happens. But now they bat like poodles.

Read Cricinfo's view by Andrew Miller.

Only two innings have elapsed since they were bundled out for 81 by Chaminda Vaas at Galle, and when they've not been getting out, they've been getting bogged down instead, as their disgracefully slow first innings testifies.

Also check Mike Atherton, in the Sunday Telegraph, trying to address the Harmison question.

Meanwhile in the Sunday Times Simon Wilde salutes Ryan Sidebottom.

His great service to English cricket is that he has reminded everyone of the simple virtue of putting the ball in the right place and asking the batsman to play it. As Steve Harmison has demonstrated, speed alone is not enough.

Chris Gayle is back as the West Indies captain but Tony Becca, writing in the Jamaica Gleaner, wonders what happened to Ramnaresh Sarwan?

By removing Sarwan as the captain of the team without giving him a fair chance to prove himself, the selectors and the board have once again demonstrated one of the reasons why West Indies cricket is still, after so many, many years, languishing at number eight in both the Test and one-day versions of the game.

In the Trinidad Express BC Pires interviews Colin Borde, the new manager of the West Indies side.

There is no connection between youngsters in their twenties and the “West Indies”, writes Peter O' Connor in Trinidad's Newsday. What we have now is Trinis and Jamaicans and Bajans, being asked to subjugate their newly learned patriotism to a bygone West Indies.

Racism in sport is not a new phenomenon, writes KN Anand in the New Indian Express.

It beats me why there is no world body in sport to initiate punitive action — I don’t mean little fines and suspension for a couple of games — on those indulging in racism in any form. It’s a hydra-headed monster with far more destructive implications than even doping. And we don’t need research to tell us whether a monkey chant is a racial taunt or a bhajan by devotees of Lord Hanuman.

The startling figures paid for the star players at the IPL auction stands testimony to the power of the new Indian market, writes Mike Marquesee in the Hindu.

Before plunging head first into IPL-mania, cricket fans should consider the down side in the comparison with the English Premier League, which has become widely associated with venality and dishonesty, on and off the field. There have been extensive allegations of bribery and corruption, many highlighting dubious trade-offs between agents and managers. The newspapers are full of the pathetic misbehaviour of over-paid, under-educated 20-year old football stars, and the public is not amused. The danger is that the IPL will emulate the worst of English football, and not only in its paper thin culture of instant celebrity.

The IPL isn't the only league drawing foreign players. Two decades after touring apartheid South Africa, John Embury is at it again, coaching in the unofficial Twenty20 league in India and dreaming of a global inter-city event, writes Will Buckley in the London-based Observer.

Also read an interview with Shane Bond, another ICL recruit, in the Indian Express.

Indian cricket teams have owned this belief before, but never held onto it, because their commitment to excellence, and each other, was fickle, writes Rohit Brijnath in the BBC website.

These fellows wear the insolent bravery of youth and a cloak of effrontery, though at times they needed to clutch at the experienced hand of Tendulkar. Australian cricket is somewhat a faded photocopy of itself, but beating them at home required from the Indians substantial commitment to the cause and each other and they found it. Opportunity knocked and was tackled to the ground by the Indians.

Also in the same website, read Sanjeev Srivastava's interview with Rahul Dravid.

	© Getty Images

While England and Australia are sufficiently rich to keep their players at home, New Zealand and the West Indies can't hope to match the sums bandied about by the Indians, writes Geoff Cumming in the New Zealand Herald.

Until the Indian leagues came along, smash-and-bash cricket was dismissed as a garish hybrid to be used sparingly - a couple of games to whet fans' appetites at the start of a tour. Suddenly, it threatens one-day (50-over) cricket's role as the sport's money-spinner. Conceivably, cricket could go the way of sports like soccer and, increasingly, rugby - dominated by club/franchise competitions with few opportunities for meaningful international competition outside a world cup every four years.

	Ricky Ponting and his team face more tests © Getty Images

Tim Lane writes in the Age about the end of Ricky Ponting’s glory days and predicts things will be much harder for Australia in the future.

Ponting now leads Australia into the unknown. Were he three years older he, like others, might call time and quit while he's ahead. Were he three years younger, and a recently appointed captain, he could contemplate taking the team through a new era. Time, though, rarely makes these decisions so straightforward. The glory days are over and Ponting's new challenge has begun.

The Pura Cup season is winding down and New South Wales have a dilemma over where to stage the final if they win the hosting rights. A rugby league game is due to be held at the SCG during the decider and Michael Clarke has a test of allegiance, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Damien Martyn has popped up in India, where he will appear in the Indian Cricket League. In the Sydney Morning Herald Alex Brown looks at what he has done since the strange end to his international career.

	India's economic boom has released a new sort of cricketer - tough, independent, materialistic and comfortable in his own skin © AFP

Australia was swept aside by an ambitious, fit, young, fresh and superbly-led Indian side, Peter Roebuck says in the Age.

India's economic boom has released a new sort of cricketer - tough, independent, materialistic and comfortable in his own skin. Suddenly, India seemed to represent the future, Australia the past.

Australia was confronted and affronted by a younger version of itself. Australia always has had a strong and democratic cricketing culture. The captain is a tough nut from Mowbray and his predecessor grimaced more than he grinned. India used to depend upon players steeped in the ethics and traditions of the game.

Roebuck feels Australia lost their focus after the controversial episodes during the Sydney Test.

Whatever the right and wrongs of the Sydney Test, the Australians lost their equanimity and never recovered. Harbhajan's exchange with Andrew Symonds was brief and of little account. And Symonds had started it. Symonds and Matthew Hayden are about as diplomatic as Sir Les Patterson. The rest was madness. Far from breaking their spirit, the attacks on Harbhajan helped the Indians to form the pack mentality that has long been the hallmark of Australian teams. The spinner's refusal to take a backward step was part of that.

	Lalit Modi - the man behind the IPL riches © AFP

Modi works from the plush Mumbai offices of Modi Enterprises, the industrial conglomerate owned by his family. Founded in 1933, the group has interests in agro-chemicals, tobacco, tea and beverages, education, entertainment and marketing. Casually dressed and sitting on a large lounge chair, he flicked the channels of an enormous plasma TV, ignoring the constant buzzing of his palm pilot.

Kevin Pietersen has cut a detached and perturbed figure through campaigns on three different continents and all he has had to show for it is a one-day trophy for beating Sri Lanka and a batting average slumming it in the low thirties, writes Simon Wilde in the Times.

External factors may have contributed to his mood. Tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand may not be ones to get his creative juices flowing. He prefers the really big stages and the really big needle matches. His record against Australia is outstanding and it is hard to imagine him staying in the shadows come the series against South Africa this summer.

Vic Marks, in the Guardian, writes that England's bowlers have lacked steam at Hamilton, especially Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard. The faster they ran in, the slower the ball departed down the sluggish pitch. Ryan Sidebottom, who lacks their pedigree, outbowled them by a disturbing margin.

Arnie, Ryan's father and a one-Test-wonder, popped up to the Test Match Special box yesterday, the right sort of proud dad. He has kept out of the way for most of Ryan's career; this was the first time he had seen him bowl in a Test match. Cheerful as ever he noted how "Mr Fletcher always wanted bowlers who bowled at more than 85mph. What he forgot to tell them was that they had to bowl at the stumps as well".

"The music is a giveaway," writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald. "You replace the rock/grunge/pop at decibels designed to prevent conversation with the more sedate soft folk/gentle pop/string quartet sounds which lend themselves to reclining on the grass bank, indulging in the odd nap."

Between December 2006 and January 4 this year, New Zealand did not have a single Test at home. The focus was strictly on the ODI game in preparation for last year's World Cup in the Caribbean. It got New Zealand their customary semi-final finish. With due respect to Bangladesh: England are here, the ODIs are done and the real game is back with us. There's a proportion of the cricket public who'll yawn and get back to life's realities. For others this is what they've been waiting, well, years for: a true test of a cricketer's worth.

England played 11 Tests last year, including seven at home and Simon Wilde, the Times correspondent, is counting down the days to the end of this slow Test. He believes with Twenty20 taking control of everyone's thinking, it is hard to recallibrate the mind to the subtleties and tempo of a five-day marathon.

The Guardian's Vic Marks thinks if Lalit Modi, the chairman of Indian Premier League, had been at the Hamilton Test, he would have kept his cheque-book in his pocket.

"Until Graeme Smith can produce against Australia, some pundits might see him as a flat-track bully who can plunder two double tons against minnows Bangladesh, but when it comes to the finest opposition, is found wanting. However, that's also the magic of being Graeme Smith," writes Gary Lemke on iol.co.za.

While there is no debate as to the merits of Eddie Barlow, Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock and Mike Procter among The Selected's top 25 players of all time and even the presence of Allan Donald, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Makhaya Ntini can't be disputed Smith's appearance ignites discussion. For, at the end of a career a player is judged by his statistics. Not on his ability as a captain, or the fact that he has to wear several other hats, in dealing with the tricky issue of transformation and captaining a team that may include some players who aren't in the Test XI entirely on merit.

Iqbal Abdulla, the India under-19 left-arm spinner, was entrusted with taking the World Cup from Bangalore to the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai. He stored it in his kitchen, worried about it getting stolen. Read more in the Indian Express.

	Harsha Bhogle: If Ishant can retain his ability to learn, his spell of bowling to Ponting at Perth will become a defining moment © Getty Images

... he worked on the ball that leaves the right-handers. Till that moment, he had been one-dimensional, bowling quickly but predictably. In the years to come, if he can retain his ability to learn, his spell of bowling to Ponting at Perth will become a defining moment. Australia knew they had a fight on their hands from a man who had taken no more than a handful of wickets. He had pace but more than anything else he was confident and willing to back himself. From that moment onwards, with the batsman aware that the ball could go either way, he became, to quote Adam Gilchrist after the Adelaide Test, “lethal”.

	India played a brand of one-day cricket that might have been fashioned by Dhoni: nerveless, intuitive, street-smart © AFP

India played a brand of one-day cricket that might have been fashioned by Dhoni: nerveless, intuitive, street-smart. On the other hand, Australia’s fallibility was mirrored in its captain, Ricky Ponting. He was part of a collective batting failure, produced by fatigue and triggered by the swinging white ball.

In Hindustan Times Seema Goswami writes that the Great Indian Dream is the game of cricket itself.

In many ways, cricket has become the fastest route to social mobility. Virender Sehwag, who had to change two buses to get to cricket practice at the Kotla from his home in Najafgarh, where his father traded in seeds and grains, is now the toast of Delhi high society. Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni share the stage with Shah Rukh at events, with King Khan even teaching them a few good dance moves. Harbhajan Singh, who initially couldn’t follow what was said in team meetings because he didn’t understand English, can now hold his own against the combined might of the Australian media.

And in the Indian Express, Kunal Pradhan analyses the similarities and differences between Sourav Ganguly and Dhoni as captain.

At a macro level, Dhoni is very similar to Ganguly. They both fought for their players, they both defied the age-old law of parochialism, they were both sources of inspiration to a burgeoning new India ...

On a micro level, however, the two skippers could not be more different. Ganguly was hard, in-your-face, loud and audacious. Dhoni is cool, calm, and in control of not just his side but also his own conduct.

"It is debatable if any individual, Muttiah Muralitharan included, has had to endure the ordeal Harbhajan was systematically subjected to by the collective might of the Australian cricket team, the so-called sporting Australian public, and the completely prejudiced Australian media," writes R Kaushik in the Deccan Herald.

John Emburey, the former England and Middlesex offspinner, has been appointed coach by one of the ICL franchises. Patrick Kidd finds out more in today's Times:

Emburey has signed a three-year contract with the Ahmedabad Rockets, who will be captained by Damien Martyn, the former Australia batsman, and include Murray Goodwin, the Sussex and Zimbabwe batsman, Wavell Hinds, of Derbyshire and West Indies, and Jason Gillespie, the former Australia fast bowler, who is due to play for Glamorgan.

Speaking to The Times from Chandigarh yesterday, Emburey said that he was relying on his core of senior players to lift the inexperienced young Indians in his team and added that there was no reason why the league could not coexist with the official Indian Premier League (IPL), which is backed by the Indian board.

“The competition between the two will be good for the game,” Emburey said. “People have been surprised how much financial impact the ICL can have. There are lots of companies out there interested in sponsoring it.”

In the concluding part of the Times' series of extracts from his latest book, Ed Smith asks if sportsmanship is indeed dead. Cheats never prosper, feels Smith, unless they play in the moral maze of modern-day sport.

Smith compares rugby, golf, and cricket, with a word about how conventions are always changing, and says that while some crimes are upgraded in our imagination, others are downgraded.

It is often argued that cheating is getting worse and sportsmanship is declining. But one fact often ignored is not only that rules change, but also that conventions evolve. In cricket, not so long ago, most batsmen (in theory anyway) claimed to “walk” - in other words, if they knew they had nicked a catch to the wicketkeeper, they did not wait for the umpire's decision. Only recently has “standing”, when you know you have edged the ball, become typical behaviour in the first-class game.

Andrew Webster, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, compares Andrew Symonds’ shoulder charge during the second final to other big hits and talks to rugby league players about the tackle.

Trevor Gillmeister believes Symonds should work on his technique. "He didn't drive through properly," he said. "He didn't finish the tackle off. And if he's ever going to make it in rugby league, he might want to put a cheap shot in there somewhere, too."

	Is the media hype on the IPL a bit akin to uncorking the champagne too soon? © Getty Images

Is the Indian Premier League going to be successful? Well, the Economic Times tries to find answers among prospective sponsors, merchandisers, marketers, ad and brand gurus, and sport management firms. A few responses:

Kishore Biyani, group CEO, Future Group, believes that while Indians wear a T-shirt representing Team India, he doesn’t see any display of pride in rooting for a local team. Overruling any merchandising possibilities, Biyani says: “Prima facie, there’s no emotional affinity for the audience to buy team merchandise. So right now, I don’t see any potential.

“It’s the fans who bring in viewership and not the other way around,” says Anil Nair, president, Law & Kenneth. “Can the team owners get 10,000 Kolkatans to travel to Mohali to cheer Kolkata? That’s the test the IPL has to pass.

“What we have to figure out is how to keep the IPL alive from June 2 this year (when the IPL ends) to the next tournament. How do you keep the local fan base excited about IPL for one whole year?” queries Piyush Pandey, group chairman , O&M .

In the Daily Telegraph, Simon Heffer says cricket is in a crisis and suggests a radical idea to save it from ruin.

If the cricket authorities have the vision to see it, and the guts to act on that vision, what they should do about the insurgency by Indian riches into cricket is quite obvious. From the county, state or provincial level up to the international, cricket needs to be split into two games or, to use a rugby analogy, two codes.

There would be two discrete groups of players. One would play first-class cricket. The other would play Twenty20. There could be a negotiation about which, or whether indeed both, would play the 50-over game. There would be little money in the first-class game, except from certain Test series.

	Which one of the two is the Suez Canal? © AFP

At times Sachin Tendulkar's bat appears as wide as the Suez Canal, says Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. He says it's a privilege to watch players like Tendulkar and Shane Warne.

Over the past 15 years, cricket enthusiasts have enjoyed many delights but two stand out. Anyone able to follow the careers of Tendulkar and Shane Warne at close quarters has been privileged. They count among the most enchanting and compelling cricketers the game has seen. Both were craftsmen of high calibre but also artists of supreme talent. Warne was a mesmerising tweaker with a fiercely competitive streak. The Indian remains a classical batsman unburdened with ego and capable of exquisite strokeplay.

Anand Vasu, of the Hindustan Times, writes about the magnitude of India's achievement in Australia.

When Mahendra Singh Dhoni spoke soon after the win - perhaps the only Indian in the squad calm enough to say a few sensible words - he, perhaps for the first time, referred to this bunch as "my team" rather than "the boys" or "our team."

In the Daily Telegraph, Robert Craddock says Australia's tri-series loss to India is perhaps only a sign of things to come.

The gap between Australia and the rest has closed to the point where the national selectors must be getting sweaty palms. The Indian team which trumped Australia last night contains just one player - Sachin Tendulkar - over 30.

Australia, by contrast, had just three players - James Hopes, Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson - under 30. Earlier this week India stormed to victory in the under-19 World Cup. They are a nation on the rise.

In the same newspaper, Michael Hussey says Adam Gilchrist's retirement will leave a big gap to fill.

Moderation will be forsaken, balance will be lost--but maybe, just maybe, this victory, against all odds, deserves a very special celebration, writes Rohit Mahajan in Outlook. Also read the Pioneer editorial on the triumph.

While Adam Gilchrist and Brad Hogg went off in a blaze of praise, carrying a crystal vase each, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid (and V.V.S. Laxman, don’t forget) were interred sans ceremony, say Sankarshan Thakur and Charu Sudan Kasturi in the Kolkata-based Telegraph.

Devendra Pandey, of the Indian Express, talks to Rohit Sharma about the tour.

What can you recall of your 2006 tour to Australia for the Top End series and what has changed now?

I remember when I came here to play the last time I didn’t have enough money! I couldn’t shop... I didn’t have a single penny to spend. In fact, I even borrowed money from my teammates that time. Now, fortunately, things have changed. That sums up a bit of the difference I’ve been experiencing.

Anand Vasu looks back at the under-19 Indian players who were involved in the World Cup in 2000 and tracks their progress. Read the piece in the Hindustan Times.

Meanwhile Mid-Day has the story of how 80 college kids (who had not even heard of U-19) were hired by event management company to cheer the U-19 champions.

Bishan Singh Bedi is not enamored with the Under-19 boys. Read it here.

'All said and done, their (juniors') on-field behaviour was deplorable. Don't confuse this kind of behaviour with aggression; it was absolutely terrible and atrocious. 'There was no finesse, no grace. When you are winning, you should be graceful. It was herd mentality ... And a few of the players did not look under 19 years of age; faces of under-19 boys look different.

Bedi has also expressed unhappiness over Harbhajan's behaviour in Australia.

Harbhajan is setting a bad example. Matthew Hayden was perhaps right when he said what he said. After all cricket did not originate in villages; it has a long history and tradition.

	Matthew Hayden: A superhero or a batsman? © Getty Images

Happily for Channel 9, we got what everybody wanted 10 minutes in. "One of the great clashes," Ian Healy announced solemnly. "Sharma and Hayden." Jabbing murderously at his crease Hayden looked, as ever, like an anvil-jawed, gorilla-chested Marvel Comics superhero dressed up in a green nylon leisure suit. Sharma, on the other hand, could pass for a sensitive youth from the scholarship set with a passion for 19th century Romantic poetry and playing the bassoon. On the back of his shirt he had "Ishant", which sounds like the peg for an interminable Two Ronnies sketch. Something along the lines of "Can you tell me the name of this bowler?" "Ishant." "There's no need to be like that." "I'm telling you, Ishant." Repeat until laughter track has hysterics.

And over in The Age, Paul Toohey says he is finding Mark Nicholas increasingly tiresome to listen to.

Nicholas feels it his duty to lick the boots of his fellow commentators as if they were gods with his skin-crawlingly admiring questions. He treats standard shots executed by Australian batsmen, or throws to the stumps by Australian fielders (even ones that miss) as though their actions have been personally guided by the hand of the Almighty.

Steve Waugh in the Daily Telegraph gives his take on Matthew Hayden’s “obnoxious weed” comment about Harbhajan Singh.

Often, as a player, radio interviews - and in particular the more relaxed FM networks - are where the cliches and sportspeak are abandoned as you inadvertently drift off into the spirit of the interview and blurt out something that you wouldn't normally say in a more controlled environment which often leads to a headline and harsh consequences.

Writing in the Age, Peter Roebuck is pleased Hayden and Harbhajan put the niggle behind them and both performed well at the SCG on Sunday.

Peter Lalor, in the Australian, looks at how the eventful series has affected Ricky Ponting.

From the moment the one-day series started in India last September he has battled nonsense and scandal at every turn. Players have clashed on the field and nations have clashed off it. His team and his board are at loggerheads for the first time in years. Controversy has stuck to the Australians like dog excrement sticks to the shoes. It has left a stain across the carpet of the summer and will take some removing.

Shane Bond, who joined the Indian Cricket League, doesn't know why he is being treated like a rebel. Read Anand Vasu's interview with Bond in the Hindustan Times.

"The disappointing thing is that the NZC initially said I could come and play in the ICL if it did not clash with international cricket," said Bond. "Then they wanted me to renege on the contract which was very good. I acted on good faith and now I'm being called a rebel and being banned."

Houston billionaire Sir Allen Stanford tells the Observer's Andy Bull how, from his base in Antigua, he hopes to revive Caribbean cricket and sell the game to middle America.

Stanford lives in St Croix in the US Virgin Islands, having moved to the Caribbean in the 1980s because of the tax breaks and the warm weather. He has been in the area long enough to know that 'when cricket, which is the glue that binds us all together, comes up, we go up with it, and when it sinks down we all sink with it. My initial thought was just to do anything to give West Indies a shot in the arm. But this thing was a lot more successful than any of us thought.'

Also read a story in the Trinidad Express on 83-year-old Ivan Johnson.

Johnson is passionate about cricket. He has been playing longer than he has been married. He has been in the game for the past 75 years, beginning at primary school, he was married in 1962.

Peter Moores begins the Test series against New Zealand next week as a coach under pressure. England have lost their last two series - against India and Sri Lanka - and have slipped to No. 5 in the world. But Moores tells Brian Viner, in The Independent, that he isn't thinking about what has gone and is focussed on the challenge ahead.

"There are other things to worry about going into this Test series, key areas we need to improve in." Which are? "Well, the batters need to go on and get big scores, and the bowlers need to find more consistency." Which sounds a bit like a jockey saying he needs to get a lot better at riding, or a footballer admitting that his kicking needs serious work. Moreover, the challenges facing the Test side must have been brought into sharper focus by defeat in the one-dayers, different XI or not. Has that increased the resolve in the camp?

"No, the resolve was there anyway. Obviously, we're disappointed we didn't do better, but if you include the Twenty20 games then we've played them seven times, won three, lost three, with one tie. That's not so bad. And actually, the one-dayers already seem like a long way away."

	Move over Ashes, Mumbai v Mohali is here © Getty Images

...international cricket could revisit its scheduling. If one month of IPL can make $1 billion for the Indian board, that surely exposes the myth that more cricket makes more profit.

The money has been splurged, the players have been bought. But what about returns on investment? And will domestic cricket profit? An analysis of the IPL auction in Outlook magazine:

It is learnt that Tendulkar had a senior Reliance official tagging along with him in Australia. After regular meetings and daily conference calls with Maker IV, Nariman Point, Tendulkar gave Reliance a list of 21 players that it should try and buy. Says Reliance's Kaushik Roy, who is working on the IPL initiative: "We don't pretend to be a sports company, so obviously the current team is exactly what Sachin wanted and was comfortable with."

With Adam Gilchrist exiting soon, the Sydney Morning Herald sifts through its archives and comes with Peter Roebuck's predictions on the class of '91.

After watching Gilchrist's innings at the MCG, Roebuck says the flamboyant wicketkeeper-batsman seems set to break the usual norm of players leaving the grand stage on a quiet note.

A small crowd was given a rare treat, something to savour long after the final curtain has fallen.

No tears need be shed for the gloveman. Rather, let us celebrate a happy ending. Gilchrist is going on his own terms, and in style.